Principles and Concepts of Maori Health and Wellbeing: DHW 503 Report

This report delves into the core principles and concepts of Maori health and wellbeing, as defined by the Maori people of New Zealand. It begins by explaining Hauora, the Maori view of health, emphasizing the interconnectedness of physical, social, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. The report then explores key concepts such as Whakapapa (genealogy), Kaitiakitanga (guardianship of the environment), Whanaungatanga (relationships and kinship), and Manaakitanga (reciprocal hospitality and respect). It further examines the importance of Wairua (spirituality), Hinengaro (mental and emotional wellbeing), and their impact on Maori perspectives on health, relationships, and the environment. The report highlights how these concepts are intertwined and contribute to a holistic understanding of health within the Maori worldview, emphasizing the importance of family, community, and connection to the land and ancestors. The report concludes by emphasizing the role of these principles in promoting overall wellbeing, providing a comprehensive overview of Maori health principles and their practical application.

Running head: MAORI HEALTH
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Task 1:
1.1. Health and well-being are essential aspects of life. Hauora can be described as the
Maori view of health that is unique to the nation of New Zealand. This concept mainly
covers the physical, social, mental as well as spiritual needs that every of the members have
the Hauora believes that each of the principles of Hauora are intricately associated with each
other. There are four important principles of Hauora that are often compared with the four
walls of the whare (house or building). Each wall is seen to represent different concepts and
is all required for strength and symmetry of the whare (Cunningham, 2015). One of the most
important concepts is called the Taha tinana which refers to the physical well-being. This
principle mainly focuses importance on the aspects of physical body as well its growth,
development as well as the ability to move on along with the different ways of caring for it.
The next principle is called the Taha hinengaro also referred to as the mental as well as
emotional well-being. This principle mainly covers the coherent thinking procedures as well
as acknowledging and expressing different thoughts and feelings and also responding in a
constructive manner. The third principle is referred to as the taha-whanau also referred to as
the social well-being (Cram et al., 2018). This principle mainly talks about the importance of
family relationships as well as maintaining friendships and other interspersion relationships.
This principle discusses the importance of incorporating feelings of belonging as well as
compassion and caring and even social support. The fourth principle is called the Taha
wairua or the spiritual well-being. This component mainly helps in covering the values and
beliefs that help in determining the ways people live as well as searching for the meaning and
purposes in life along with personal identities and even self-awareness (Heaton, 2018).

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1.2. Whakapapa can be described as the taxonomic framework that helps in linking all
animate and inanimate beings and even known and unknown phenomena in both the
terrestrial as well as in the spiritual worlds. Therefore, this concept helps in binding all the
mentioned things into one bundle. It helps in mapping the relationship so that mythologies as
well as legend, knowledge, history as well as tikanga (custom), philosophies and even
spiritualities are organized and thereby preserved and transmitted from one generation to that
of the next. One of the participants in a research study had described the entire concept as the
procedure that helps in laying one thing upon the other. If an individual is visualizing the
foundation ancestors as the first generation, the next as well as the succeeding ancestors are
placed on them in ordered layers (Pitama et al., 2017). The next concept is about
kaitiakitanga. This concept mainly describes the guardianship as well as the protection and
preservation and sheltering. It is the way of managing the environment that remains based on
traditional Maori view. Another important concept is the whanaungatanga. This concept
mainly describes relationship, kinship as well as sense of family connection (Wilson et al.,
2018). This mainly describes the relationship that gets developed through shared experiences
as well as working together that provides people with the sense of belonging. Studies opine
that it develops mainly as the result of kinship rights and obligations that help in serving to
strengthening each members of the kin group (Ahuriri et al., 2016). The concept of
manaakitanga can be described as the term that contains many different layers of the
meaning. At its heart, the term is mainly seen to refer to the needs for the reciprocal
hospitality as well as respect between different groups, people and the cultures.

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1.3. Wairua referring to spirituality can be described as the most important requirement for
health. It is mainly believed that if an individual does not have spiritual awareness, he can be
considered to be lacking well-being and he would become more prone to ill health. The
concept of that of Wairua also discusses relationships with the environment that are between
the people or within the heritage. The breakdown of this relationship can result in the terms
of ill health as well as lack of personal identity. The concept of hinengaro mainly contains
the concept of thoughts as well as feelings and behaviors that are vital to health in the Te Ao
Maori that means the Maori world (Oetzel et al., 2019). Maoris are found to be more
impressed with unspoken signal, eye movements, and bland expressions and in some cases
regards words as superfluous and even demeaning. Maori thinking are mainly holistic in
nature. The Maoris believe that individuals who consider their first thoughts of putting
themselves in the first positions, are selfish with their personal ambitions and takes actions
only for their needs first without recognizing the impact of such actions and thoughts on
others are considered unhealthy. Therefore, the concept of Whanaungatanga can help in
explaining their Maori world view in a better version. Whanaungatanga is mainly seen to
cover the wide values of relationships like that of family and friends and are mainly seen to
point to the feelings of belongings as well as inclusion (Reid et al., 2016). This concept
mainly captures the beliefs of the Maori community that the more relationships people have
in their lives, they would be happier as well as healthier. An understanding of the concept of
kaitiakitanga can be well associated with this concept. As per the Maori worldview, they
believe that there remains a deep kinship taking place between humans and that of the natural
world. All lives are connected and people are not superior to that of the natural order. Indeed,
they are parts of it. Maoris mainly visualizes humans as part of the web or fabric of lives.

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They believe that in order to understand the world, one must understand the different parts of
the web. Here the term Kaitiaki is essential as it forms an important part of the web of life of
Maori people. A kaitiaki can be described as the person or the group who are recognized as
guardian by the tangata whenua. Studies have also found out that one of the foundations of
whanau is whakapapa that is given greater importance in the Maori society (Ahuriri et al.,
2016). Whakapapa mainly place people in the whole context of relationships. This concept
shows how each people relates to each other and how they should be working together in a
collaborative manner with each other, argue or even reside with each other. It is mainly
through the whakapapa that interactions and different relationships are established,
developed and maintained within the whanau and also within the whanaunga or relatives,
marae and even sacred mountains, rivers and even ultimately the universe. It is believed that
it is only through this organizing principle though which individuals often get their names as
well as their identities, their sense of belonging and even the turangawaewae (place to stand
– their ancestral land) and even access to knowledge, rights and responsibilities that
contribute to their well-beings (Ahuriri et al., 2016). All these are ultimately found to be
related with the concept of whanau. For the Maori people, whanau is mainly about the
extended relationships that are very different from that of the western nuclear family concept.
They believe that maintaining family relationships is an important part of holistic well-being
and caring for young and old alike are extremely paramount. Therefore, in this way, the
different concepts and principles of Hauora are found to be intricately associated with each
other.

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References:
Ahuriri-Driscoll, A. (2016). Health policy, health inequalities and Maori.
Cram, F., Pipi, K., & Paipa, K. (2018). Kaupapa Māori Evaluation in Aotearoa New
Zealand. New Directions for Evaluation, 2018(159), 63-77.
Cunningham, C. (2015). Psychosocial factors in healthcare for Maori. Psychosocial Dimensions
of Medicine, 208.
Heaton, S. (2018). The juxtaposition of Māori words with English concepts.‘Hauora, Well-
being’as philosophy. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(5), 460-468.
Oetzel, J. G., Hokowhitu, B., Simpson, M., Reddy, R., Nock, S., Greensill, H., ... & Shelford, P.
(2019). Kaumātua Mana Motuhake: A study protocol for a peer education intervention to
help Māori elders work through later-stage life transitions. BMC geriatrics, 19(1), 36.
Pitama, S. G., Bennett, S. T. M., Waitoki, W., Haitana, T. N., Valentine, H., Pahina, J., ... &
Palmer, S. C. (2017). A proposed hauora Māori clinical guide for psychologists: Using
the hui process and Meihana model in clinical assessment and formulation.
Reid, J., Cormack, D., & Crowe, M. (2016). The significance of relational continuity of care for
Māori patient engagement with predominantly non‐Māori doctors: findings from a
qualitative study. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 40(2), 120-125.

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Wilson, D., Heaslip, V., & Jackson, D. (2018). Improving equity and cultural responsiveness
with marginalised communities: Understanding competing worldviews. Journal of
clinical nursing, 27(19-20), 3810-3819.